Christmas came and went. On this Christmas though, I received a great gift from my girlfriend. She got me a record player! It was quite the surprise. I apparently had said something many months ago about it and when the large box was put under the tree, I had NO idea what the hell it could have been. Turns out it was this!
Its a Crosley CR704. A 5 in 1 musical...box...for lack of better terms. It has an ability to play AM/FM radio, CDs, cassette tapes, has an MP3 jack and a turntable up top.
Its a pretty classy item, I dig the vintage look. Although a little skeptical at first. Since I've been without a record player for 7 years or so after the one I was handed down crapped out and I never sought out a replacement. I never knew the first thing about record players since I was 16 listening to Punk-O-Rama 1 to even now being 26. I just sort of felt that a 5 in 1 contraption that I am pretty sure you could order out of a catalog similar to Sky Mall would be all that good. Well, I was proven wrong. It sounds great in my opinion. I have it in my living room and I usually spend most of my time not in the living room and it fills the house with sound and I am surprised to be honest.
Sure there are probably better players out there. There are also worse I'm sure. The reviews for the most part are very good and as far as most of the complaints about this player go, all I would have to say about it in defense is that this player is quite obviously not a sound system. If that is what you are looking for then go out and buy big speakers, an expensive turntable and a receiver. If you are looking for something that is for the most part compact, lightweight and something to just enjoy listening to your records again as a hobby, this is right up your alley.
My last stated reason is exactly why I am so happy to now have this. Record collecting has always been a slight hobby of mine. Something that I have taken a long break from doing. Since being without a way to listen to all my old records, this could be the worlds most gigantic piece of crap and I would probably be just as excited. It's gotten me back into an old hobby, spending money...I mean record collecting! The funny part is some friends of my girlfriend have also just gotten a record player. At a recent birthday gathering the boys were all in the corner talking about records. Chris had said something that I will currently butcher trying to reiterate that having a record player brings back what "listening to a record" used to be. There is no shuffle, no mix, no skip, none of that. You put the record on and you listen to it. Which is very true.
The only negative things to say about this player is that you may have to open up the back and adjust a screw which controls where the record finishes. When I would play 7" records, it would end just shy and not finish the record. A little bit of a pain but something that is easily remedied. If you call Crosley they will gladly put you in touch with a technician who could walk you through the process. Unfortunately they are only open M-F 8-5 when I am at work but they emailed me instructions. Luckily a friend of mine also has this same player who had the same issue so he came over and helped me out. Secondly, all my records were skipping in certain spots. To me it was either record pressing plants have gotten super sloppy OR my player was not working properly. So I placed a penny on the end of the stylus to add just a little bit of weight since there is no sort of weight adjustment on the player(maybe where that turntable would come in handy?) and my problem was solved.
So in short, I am stoked and pleased with this player. The flood gates have now been opened. Record blogs to come!
